I had hoped this would be an isolated letter, but no: more came in, and I had to answer each of them point for point. I regret to inform you, I would write, that “irregardless” is in fact a word: it is a “series of speech sounds that symbolizes and communicates a meaning usually without being divisible into smaller units capable of independent use,”*2 and not only is it a word, but it is one with a surprising amount of use in written, edited prose for reasons that are unclear to the humble drudge.
